After Almost Three Decades, The Simpsons is Finally Doing an Hour Long Episode

After 27 seasons and almost 600 episodes, you’d think The Simpsons had done everything. But in its upcoming 28th season, the iconic animated show is doing something for the first time ever: an episode that’s a full hour long.

At the TCA Summer Press Tour, Fox announced that the upcoming season will include a one-hour (with commercials) hip-hop Great Gatsby episode called The Great Phatsby. It’ll feature the voices of Taraji P. Henson and Keegan-Michael Key and centre on Mr. Burns meeting a hip-hop mogul named Jay G.

“This was just going to be a regular episode, but the table read went so well, in a fit of passion and excitement and ambition and excess, we decided to supersize it,” Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman told Entertainment Weekly. “And we haven’t done a huge amount of stories in the world of hip-hop and rap culture, so we just went for it.”

The Great Phatsbsy, the longest episode of The Simpsons ever, will be broadcast early next year. [Entertainment Weekly]